LOWELL -- Flattened blue and green tents and tarpaulins dot the ground by the canalway on Western Avenue at School Street. Empty bottles -- including a Gatorade bottle, beer bottles and a Febreze bottle -- sit nearby.

A blanket with feces on it also rests in the brush by the railroad tracks passing through the area.

Largely missing are the people who lived there.

That's because the city recently began its second phase of working to ensure homeless encampments in the city are removed, and those living in them are provided with assistance to find housing and supportive services elsewhere.

Scott Thibodeau, 48, talks about being homeless for 15 years. He is staying in an abandoned building after his previous encampment including a four-person tent was dismantled by workers cleaning up the Western Avenue area in Lowell. City officials are in the second phase of their mission to break up the encampments and get the homeless population services and appropriate housing. SUN/David H. Brow

The site by the bridge over School Street, which city officials say is owned by Western Avenue LLC, was the first of three second-round sites to be addressed.

Other sites targeted during this round are encampments by the Concord River between Rogers and Church streets, and an area along the railroad tracks across the Merrimack River from Regatta Field.

The Concord River site, which had been cleaned out a couple years ago as a new housing development went up, is owned by National Grid.

A visit Monday to the portion of the site nearest to Rogers Street revealed at least one empty encampment that appeared as if it had been lived in recently. Tents lay on the ground, a pot and pan sat next to bricks surrounding a makeshift fireplace, and an Army camouflage hat hung on a tree.

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A National Grid spokesman said company officials have met with city officials about the encampments on its property in recent months, and National Grid is working to sign a contract with a contractor to do cleanup.

Once the cleanup contract is signed, National Grid will notify city officials so they can send outreach teams to assist those still living at the sites prior to the cleanup process beginning, said National Grid spokesman David Graves.

A tent pitched in an abandoned burned-out building is used by a homeless resident.
SUN/David H. Brow

State Transit Police met with city officials last week to discuss the site along the Merrimack River by the railroad tracks off Middlesex Street. Work is under way to determine whether the MBTA owns the property, and if it is determined it does, MBTA crews will be dispatched to take remedial steps, said MBTA spokesman Joe Pesaturo.

Henri Marchand, the assistant to Lowell City Manager Bernie Lynch, said the initial homeless camps the city identified were addressed successfully, and many of the camps' inhabitants secured housing or other assistance. Marchand said he is hopeful the second phase of the efforts called for by the City Council achieves similar results.

"The initial expectation was that there would be some resistance and not many people would seek help, but that was not the case," Marchand said. "Different agencies have been very helpful with the outreach, and clearing out the camps seemed to be the motivating factor for some people at the sites to try to find housing or other services."

But a homeless man living near the bridge over School Street told The Sun he is angry about the city's efforts to remove the camps.

"There are drug dealers on the street and other people to focus on, and they are focusing on the little guy," said Scott Thibodeau, 48, who has been homeless for about 15 years. "They should be leaving the people alone."

Thibodeau said his previous living quarters -- including a four-person tent -- were recently ruined by workers cleaning up the Western Avenue area.

He said those living there were given no notice that their tent city of sorts was going to be removed. Most of his clothes were ruined and fishing poles he kept were broken.

"They destroyed everything," Thibodeau said.

Marchand said it is unlikely anyone living at the site was not given notice by outreach workers that the area would be cleaned up.

Thibodeau has found a new spot to live nearby in a burned-out building by the tracks.

He has piled up cement poles several feet high and placed a 3.5-foot wide by 7-foot long sheet of plywood covered by a blue tarp over his sleeping quarters below, which include a couple sleeping bags resting on a mattress.

A man next to him lives on a mattress he covers with cardboard boxes. Two others sleep in a tent that has an American flag hanging above it, and two more sleep on the ground at the edge of the building, said Thibodeau.

"If we get pushed out of this area, we will just go to another area," Thibodeau said.

Marchand said once the second phase is complete, the city and its partners will work to identify other campsites to address.

Those involved in the outreach and support programs include Community Teamwork Inc., the Lowell Transitional Living Center and Eliot Community Human Services, as well as the city's Planning and Development and Public Works departments.

The first three camps cleaned out were a site by Hunts Falls owned by the state Department of Transportation, a city-owned site between Beaver Brook and the Ouellette Bridge, and a camp along the VFW Highway across from UMass Lowell's North Campus.

A city-owned site along the Lord Overpass was also addressed.

At the seven first- and second-phase sites, service providers have identified 40 individuals living within the encampments, and 14 of those individuals have been re-housed, according to a recent memo Lynch provided to the City Council.

Of the other 26 individuals, seven have sought services at the Lowell Transitional Living Center, two have moved to Daybreak Shelter in Lawrence and one has moved to a veterans shelter in Boston.

The remaining 16 individuals have found other living arrangements with friends or families, or moved to other outside spaces that have not been identified, according to Lynch's memo.

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